OVERVIEW OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

Sand has been used to describe many human qualities. A vagabond has been referred to as "driftless like grains of sand." Time is "sand that drifts forever." We are all but a "grain of sand on the beach." Children can spend endless hours on the beach, creating sand castles, or digging a giant hole to reach the other end of the world. Sand is clean to play with because it can cover you up, but not make you dirty. Children look at sand falling through an hour glass fascinated by every grain that falls. Sand is loved so much by children that adults have created sand boxes where their children can play.

It’s funny to think that sand can be associated with two opposite climatic conditions. Water that crashes upon ocean beaches compared to the hot sun and wind that shifts sand in deserts like Death Valley or the Sahara Desert. In both situations some kind of erosion of the surrounding rock has created the sand. Cement binds the grains, forming sandstone a sedimentary rock.

 
Hour glass

Waves crashing along the California coast (La Jolla)